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An eerie video with the track Lazarus shows Bowie bandaged on a hospital bed as he sings, ‘I’ve got scars that can’t be seen’ and ‘I’ve got nothing left to lose’ before retreating in to a dark closet.

Bowie’s producer Tony Visconti said: ‘He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift. I knew for a year this was the way it would be.’

Few were aware how the reclusive singer’s hedonistic rock and roll lifestyle had caught up with him after years of chain-smoking and cocaine abuse.

Together in 2005: Bowie (right) died in New York two days after his 69th birthday, with his supermodel wife Iman (left), film director son Duncan Jones, 44, and 15-year-old daughter Alexandria at his bedside

Illness: Bowie (pictured performing in Hartford, Connecticut, in September 1995) had been diagnosed with incurable liver cancer in 2014 but kept it a closely-guarded secret

Wendy Leigh, who published a biography of Bowie last year, told BBC News: ‘He didn’t just battle cancer... he had six heart attacks in recent years. I got this from somebody very close to him.’

Last photo: Bowie was pictured in New York last month at what was to be his final public appearance at the premiere of a musical based on his songs

Bowie had been diagnosed with incurable liver cancer in 2014 but kept it a closely-guarded secret.

That summer, the Brixton-born star flew his teenage daughter – known as Lexi – and his wife from their Manhattan home to Britain to visit his childhood haunts.

They took photos outside the suburban semi in Beckenham, South East London, where Bowie grew up, and visited tourist attractions such as the London Eye without being recognised.

The last known photograph of Bowie – who rejected several offers of a knighthood – was taken a month ago in New York when he made what was to be his final public appearance at the premiere of Lazarus, a musical based on his songs.

Yesterday the musical’s director, Ivo van Hove, said he had been one of the few in the know about Bowie’s cancer.

‘Bowie was still writing on his deathbed, you could say,’ he said. ‘He fought like a lion and kept working like a lion through it all. I had incredible respect for that.’

Musician and producer Brian Eno, who collaborated with Bowie on three albums, said he had received an email from the singer a week ago ending with the words: ‘Thank you for our good times, Brian, they will never rot.’

Eno said: ‘I realise now it was his way of saying goodbye.’

Bowie’s devastated wife of 24 years, Iman, 60, shared her heartbreak online with apparent references to her husband’s death on her Instagram page over the weekend.

Birthplace: People dance and sing to music by Bowie on Windrush Square in Brixton, South London, last night

Memories: Memorabilia and bouquets of flowers are left in honour of Bowie outside his apartment in New York

She posted the messages: ‘The struggle is real, but so is God’, and: ‘Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory.’

TRIBUTES FROM ROCK LEGENDS... AND BILE FROM CYBERNATS

In a huge outpouring of grief over David Bowie yesterday more than 4.3million messages were posted on Twitter.

Everyone from celebrities to the Archbishop of Canterbury paid tribute to the singer.

Sir Mick Jagger, who released Dancing In The Street with Bowie, said: ‘David was always an inspiration to me and a true original.’

Madonna said Bowie was the first act she saw perform live, tweeting: ‘Talented. Unique. Genius. Game Changer. The Man who Fell to Earth. Your Spirit Lives on Forever!’

And David Cameron described him as ‘someone who truly deserves to be described as a genius’.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby also emerged as a fan of the singer, telling Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I remember sitting listening to his songs endlessly in the 70s.’

But some Scottish nationalists celebrated his death because Bowie had called on Scotland to stay in the UK in 2014.

News of Bowie’s death was confirmed by his son Duncan, who tweeted a touching photo of himself as a baby with his father and wrote: ‘Very sorry and sad to say it’s true. I’ll be offline for a while. Love to all.’

A spokesman for the singer said: ‘David Bowie died peacefully surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer.

‘While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief.’

Bowie’s first wife Angie, who is appearing on Celebrity Big Brother, was informed off-camera of her ex-husband’s death and decided to continue her stint on the Channel 5 reality show.

Bowie shrines popped up around the world, with many fans in tears as they laid flowers.

Celebrities and public figures rushed to pay tribute to the artist regarded as one of the most radical and ground-breaking musicians of the past 50 years, whose Ziggy Stardust persona helped usher in the glam rock era but who also explored disco and electronic music as well as acting in several films.

Sir Paul McCartney said: ‘Very sad news to wake up to on this raining morning. David was a great star and I treasure the moments we had together.’

One of the more unusual tributes came from Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican’s culture chief. He quoted Bowie’s first hit, Space Oddity, which includes the line ‘may God’s love be with you’.

Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis said of the singer, who played the Somerset festival twice, in 1971 and 2000: ‘He’s one of the three greatest in the world ever – Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and David Bowie. There’s no one else even close.’